Currently Reading… 25

Currently Reading…

The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret

Advocates of flash fiction contend you can say a lot with a little. Unfortunately, you can also say a little with a little. Israeli writer Keret (The Nimrod Flipout) confirms both with this hodgepodge of 46 sketches, culled from his first collection. There are whimsical tales like Nothing, about a woman who loved a man who was made of nothing because this love would never betray her, and Freeze! about a guy who can stop the world and uses the power to score with hot girls. Despite an appealing, comic voice, many of these pieces feel insubstantial and leave the reader indifferent. Nevertheless, a haunting theme arises as stories featuring violence accumulate: Not Human Beings, in which an Israeli soldier is beaten by fellow officers when he objects to the cruel treatment of an old Arab man, screams in the face of bloodshed, whereas the irritation of the father in A Bet, when TV news reports on an Arab sentenced to death preempts an episode of Moonlighting, suggests how violence has been normalized. Keret demonstrates how the same short form that produces ineffective trifles can also create moments of startling power. (Publisher’s Weekly)

(Source: amazon.com)

3 November 2011 · Comments

About Me

My name is Donald Quist. I'm trying to become a better writer and human being. I work as a Public Information Officer in Hartsville and I own a restaurant called Bow Thai Kitchen. About my work: I look for hope in the hopelessness. I have a predilection for expletives, moral dilemmas, ellipses, obscure pop-culture references and parenthetical statements. My collection of short stories is now available online and in a few independent bookstores. You can buy it on Amazon or by clicking that yellow button below.

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